Google is rolling out new AI-powered scam protection features across Android, Messages, and Contacts to combat increasingly sophisticated phone and text scams.
Key updates include:
In-call protections: Android will block risky actions like sideloading apps, enabling accessibility permissions and disabling Google Play Protect during calls with unknown contacts.
Screen-sharing alerts: If you’re sharing a banking app screen during a call with a stranger, Android will warn you and offer to stop sharing or end the call.
Google Messages scam detection: Expanded to catch more scams like crypto, billing, gift card, tech support and financial impersonation scams – all processed on-device.
Key Verifier: Launching this summer, it helps verify if a contact’s number has been compromised (e.g., via SIM swap) using encryption-based verification in the Contacts app.
These protections aim to block scam tactics before they succeed, while keeping user data private by running detection entirely on-device.
Source: Android Authority
